Virgin Media to warn malware-infected customers
Lines up letters
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
Virgin Media subscribers whose computers are part of a botnet can expect a letter warning them to tighten up their security, under a new initiative based on data collected by independent malware trackers.
The UK's third-largest ISP will match lists of compromised IP addresses collected by the Shadowserver Foundation, among others, to its customer records.
Those with infected machines will be encouraged to download free security software to remove the malware and protect their connection in future. Virgin Media says it expects to send out hundreds of letters per week initially, with plans to expand the campaign based on customer feedback.
The firm will also take the opportunity to plug its Digital Home Support service, a £6-per-month remote PC maintenance helpline, "for those who need a little bit more help". A quarter of callers have a malware infection, Virgin Media said.
The announcement today marks the second anti-malware initiative by a major UK ISP this summer. TalkTalk is preparing an optional service that will block infected webpages by controversially following all its customers around the web, creating lists of all the URLs they visit.
Virgin Media said it is exploring other customer security initiatives to follow its letter-writing campaign. ®
COMMENTS
I've thought they should...
...direct all traffic from a known infected machine to a sand box that only serves out one web page that prompts the user to download some clean up software, and only unlocks them back on the big bad worlds after they run the software and prove they are clean.
Even if they have more than one machine (eg a PS3 or an eggbox360) its all in lockdown till the spam node is taken down.
Firewall
Perhaps if Cable Modems had come with Firewalls from day one, cable companies would not be playing host to some of the largest spam bot-nets?! This initiative, whilst welcome from the rest of the Net users, is about 10 years late!
RE: Should disconnect
Didn't think that through, did you? How are they meant to download a fix without access the internet?
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
